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Split board approves center safety changes

By Rick Sobey, rsobey@lowellsun.com

Updated:
04/26/2016 08:42:04 AM EDT

BILLERICA -- While driver error was the main cause of a recent pedestrian accident in the town center that resulted in injuries for two girls, the victims were struck in a lane that would have been eliminated in a 2014 safety plan, according to the Police Department's investigation, released Monday.

As a result, Billerica selectmen voted 3-2 on Monday night to implement safety changes in the center, following recommendations from Police Chief Dan Rosa.

Coming soon to the Boston Road northbound side of the town common, the third lane closest to the center will have painted hash marks to prevent car travel in that lane, in the hopes of improving pedestrian safety there. That lane closest to the common is where the accident occurred on March 9.

The same painted hash marks will be in the lane near the crosswalk on the Concord Road southbound side.

"We want to offer as much safety as we possibly can to protect pedestrians," Town Manager John Curran said.

"Choking down from three lanes to two lanes will cause some further backup, but it's a balance between pedestrian safety and traffic flow," Rosa said. "I think it's a reasonable giveaway for us to increase pedestrian safety in the area."

Rosa said the Police Department concluded that driver error was the principal cause of the incident that injured two 15-year-old girls. He said the driver was distracted, disregarded laws designed to protect pedestrians in the crosswalk, and left the scene of the personal-injury accident.

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The painted "bump-outs" approved Monday are intended to prevent such accidents in the future, he said. The bump-outs are pedestrian refuge areas -- intended to increase driver and pedestrian visibility, and reduce the amount of distance traveled by pedestrians in the crosswalk areas.

That means pedestrians will have to cross two travel lanes, rather than three.

In the March accident, the pedestrians were struck in the third travel lane, which would have been lane restricted in the plan from 2014.

"It's like that game 'Frogger' out there," Selectman Kim Conway said. "It's that third lane closest to the common where drivers don't see that person walking across.

"I'm a big proponent of the painted bump-out," she added.

While the changes passed, not everyone was in agreement. While stressing that he cares about the safety of residents, Selectman George Simolaris said he opposed getting rid of the third lane along the common because of "significant" traffic backup.

In addition, Selectman Dan Burns said he wanted the Traffic Management Committee to examine the recommendations before the board voted on them.

But Curran said it wouldn't make sense to go back to the Traffic Management Committee because members of that board proposed similar changes back in 2014.

"Why send it back to them again?" said Conway, whose husband was the town's traffic-safety officer at the time of the 2014 report. "Sending it back to the committee this board ignored the first time is silly and wasteful."

Town engineers and traffic-safety officials told the board back then that curb extensions and lane-striping would make the area more friendly to walkers, reducing three lanes to two lanes. However, selectmen voted to adopt only some of the town-center improvements, drawing criticism from some residents.

In one of Curran's reports from 2014, he wrote that town engineers and traffic-safety officials had observed traffic flows around the center, and a simulated "bump-out" had not created any issues.

Selectman Andrew Deslaurier was the lone selectman to support adopting all of the recommendations in 2014.

"The town center continues to be fundamentally unsafe," Deslaurier, now the chairman, said Monday. "I recommend that this plan goes forward. This is sort of a step in the right direction in response to a tragic error."

In 2014, selectmen did approve a warning-light system at the crosswalks. The recent accident occurred in one of the crosswalks that had flashing lights on Boston Road. With blinking crosswalk lights, the pedestrian presses a button for the yellow lights to go on before crossing.

However, the town should look at light alternatives, according to Burns and Simolaris. Burns said the "rapid flash beacons are not working," and the town should consider lights that turn red.

But Curran said the number of pedestrians crossing there is not high enough to warrant red lights.

In response, Simolaris said residents should "start walking out there in droves" to make a red light legal there.

"We should have a townwide effort to get people to start walking out there to gain the numbers for a light," Simolaris said.

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